Volunteers want to survey, save elm trees of Grant Park

Inventory designed to shape future of city's 'front yard'

The American elm stands on the eastern edge of Grant Park, strong with a sturdy core. It has provided shade and beauty for nearly 100 years. But its wounds are starting to show.

A few of its branches are broken and lifeless, with no sign of leaves. But it has not been infected with the contagious and fast-spreading Dutch elm disease.

"This is a pretty good specimen," said Jerome Scott, district forester for the Chicago Park District, as he tapped the tree's trunk.

More than 1,800 American elms once graced Grant Park. Only a fraction of them — roughly 500 — remain after decades of exposure to disease and other city hazards, according to Openlands, a non-profit group that helps protect natural and open spaces. This week, the organization expects to finish the first phase of cataloging and mapping the park's elms and infection-resistant hybrids that have replaced many of them.

The group's volunteers, who go by the name TreeKeepers, hope to complete the register of the 319-acre park in the springtime, before the arrival of Chicago's next mayor, since it's unclear how Daley's successor will prioritize open space, said Glenda Daniel, a director at Openlands.

"We want to get all the plans and actions in place now," she said.

The inventory is the most comprehensive to date in the park known as Chicago's "front yard." Trees were mapped by location in the mid-1990s. This time, volunteers are recording their species, diameter and general health.

"The inventories in the past were snapshots in time," Daniel said. "This one will make for much better planning. It will allow the park to be maintained as an ongoing system. You want to keep the character of the park because it's threatened."

The elm is the predominant tree in Grant Park, with all the other trees serving as ornaments. Row upon row of elms were planted in symmetrical quadrants so dense that if you view an aerial map of the park, it looks like wallpaper.

The Grant Park elm story began about a century ago, when architects Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett, inspired by the French Renaissance, proposed American elms as the emphasized feature of the landscape.

"I remember riding my bike through Grant Park in the 1970s with that vast canopy reaching far overhead," said George Davis, a TreeKeeper and Openlands board member who said being part of the inventory connects him to local history. "It also allows me to shape the future."

Many of Grant Park's elms started dying when Dutch elm disease, a fungus spread by the elm bark beetle, arrived in the Chicago area in the late 1970s, claiming hundreds of trees.

Extraordinary measures have been taken to keep the elms alive. Volunteers assist the Park District with pruning, mulching and planting new trees. They also watch for times when the trees need extra watering.

During the inventory, each tree's size is calculated, using a graded tape measure around the circumference. Its longitude and latitude are recorded with a GPS to give its rough location in the park.

So far, volunteers have found that most of the surviving elms are along the east side of Lake Shore Drive, along South Michigan Avenue and in the center of the park.

There are about 1,300 of the newer elm hybrids. The oldest of these, the homestead elms, are already 10 inches in trunk diameter, and tall enough to be considered canopy trees. The others are mostly 2 to 3 inches in trunk diameter and will take another 10 years to provide significant shade.

"There's a lot of attachment in Chicago to these elms," Daniel said, looking up at the canopy of trees, most of which are more than 30 inches wide and 60 feet tall. "It takes a lot more baby-sitting than naturalistic parks to keep that pattern intact."